Poll finds Sinn Féin has more support than Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael combined

James Cox

Sinn Féin now has more support than Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil put together, according to the latest opinion poll.

The latest Business Post/Red C poll puts the party on 36 per cent - against Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on 19 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

The poll results show Mary Lou McDonald's party three points higher than their next closest rivals combined.

Sinn Féin has been on top of this poll for eight months in a row, and it has been above 30 per cent since last October.

The other coalition party, the Green Party, is down to 4 per cent.

Independent politicians' popularity has risen by one point, to 12 per cent.

People were also asked about their opinions on the Northern Ireland Protocol in the Business Post/Red C poll.

It found three in four (75 per cent) believe that the British government is being dishonest.

Meanwhile, DCU professor and political commentator Gary Murphy told BreakingNews.ie that we should expect more testy Dáil exchanges between Sinn Féin and the coalition parties following the exchange between Leo Varadkar and Pearse Doherty last week.

He said: "In one way Sinn Féin want to frame it as them being the ones with solutions to these terrible crises and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael particularly, representing an old-fashioned elite that is not attuned with the public, that’s the way they would like to frame the next election.

"That will continue over the next two years, if it happens when planned, but they like to frame it as them being the radicals, in a good way, who have solutions and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael being part of the tired elite that have been in power since the foundation of this State and have not done a very good job.

"It garnered more attention. The social media accounts of both parties were out straight away with clips of Doherty saying to Varakdar you should be more humble, especially when you have this investigation, and then you get the haymaker back where Varadkar mentioned the incident involving the Garda."